Imagine speaking in front of that lot. You might have trouble holding your audiences attention, even using some of your best lines!

Well, some speakers find themselves surrounded by rubbish regularly. And, they put up with it. And, its their own fault!

You wouldn’t speak in a rubbish tip so don’t have rubbish surrounding you when you take the stage.

Get rid of all the clutter…spare equipment, coffee cups, cables, briefcases, chairs and yes, even the committee! ( “I hope you don’t mind but for my presentation, can I ask you to sit in the body of the kirk where I can see you , its also less distracting for the audience”…in 40 years of speaking no-one has ever said, no I am staying right here!…and if they did…!).

Get rid of all the distractions. Give yourself a chance of holding the audience’s attention. Just get rid of it all!

” Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all. So don’t wait for trouble to intimidate or paralyse you. Make a move”

In his book On the Road, the comedian Frank Skinner describes his experience of going back on the road doing stand-up again, after many years spent working mainly on television. His adventures on tour are funny and moving as he meditates on growing older, the terrors and joys of trying to make a live audience laugh night after night, and on the nature of comedy itself.

What struck me though, was the personal angst Frank felt whenever he received feedback with even a subtle hint of criticism even if, by and large, his performance had been received rapturously by the vast majority.

To be honest, as a speaker, I’ve had those same feelings myself…ninety nine people said it was great, one says it wasn’t, and whats my abiding memory? You’ve guessed it…the one!

I take comfort, and I hope Frank does, from the words of Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Week…

” It doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it. What matters is how many people do!”